Now I may have said this before, but Iced Earth is one of my favourite bands of all time. They were in Vienna playing at Stadthalle opening for Volbeat back in November (blog post here), released their new Album "Plagues of Babylon" just a few weeks ago and are now back on a Worldwide tour presenting it. As always, this is a date I simply cannot miss, so I got together with them for some pre-show hanging out, an interview which I did for GuitarMania and of course photos of the entire show. They were recording video for two songs prior to soundcheck and there was a video team present throughout the sold-out show, so things were a little hectic and cramped but still it was a great one! Shame the stage at ((szene)) is simply too small for this wonderful band though!I did have time to do an interview with Jon Schaffer for GuitarMania before the show - you can find it here.

It's great when I have time to "hang" with everyone before and after the show because I am able to get some behind the scenes pictures. I tend to use the EOS M for this kind of stuff as it is small and unobtrusive, which helps people to forget that there is a photographer around. Also it allows me to move a lot more freely than lugging the big camera with me. I like the 35mm equivalent and the 16:9 ratio and tend to go to black and white in order to get a more documentary feel for the pictures. Try to find the most heavy metal hairbrushing picture ever in there!

Iced Earth laid it down as they always do: a well-thought out and perfectly rehearsed setlist which combined some classics with the new stuff and allowed fans to sing along all the way. The crowd having been warmed up by Elm Street and Warbringer was ready when Iced Earth hit the stage and went straight into Plagues of Babylon, the title track of their newest album. It was quickly followed by Democide and Dark Saga before going into a brilliant rendition of V during which I could barely concentrate on taking pictures (but did get this one:)

The rest of the show is a blur - it passed by too quickly and every song was just genius. It was quite loud for ((szene)) but the sound was clear and good. Stu Block singing If I Could See You is really unbelievable - his voice is so versatile and perfectly suited to hit a ballad between the heavier songs. He also brings across an incredible amount of emotion - this is not just some guy rattling off the words but rather someone who clearly has personal ties to these songs.Cthulhu saw the first load of smoke blasts go up (the rest came at the end) and A Question of Heaven closed up the main set. The encore was a strong three songs: Dystopia, Watching Over Me (wow!) and of course the classic ending to every one of their gigs: Iced Earth. The capacity crowd loved every minute of it and so did I!Below are a couple of shots, a few more here in the archive - I took a lot more but they are with the band now for future release.